States set to resume benefits for jobless

WASHINGTON - State unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress promises to ship President Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.

Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states. In other states, it will take longer.

With a GOP filibuster broken on Tuesday, senators passed the measure early Wednesday evening - a full seven weeks after benefits first began to lapse for people participating in a federally funded program providing checks to people who have been out of a job for six months or more.

The timing of the Senate vote - itself a subject of partisan brawling on Wednesday - virtually guarantees Congress would get the measure to Obama for his promised signature by no later than today.

State unemployment and labor agencies have been preparing for weeks for Congress to restore jobless payments averaging $309 a week for almost 5 million people whose 26 weeks of state benefits have run out. Those people are enrolled in a federally financed program providing up to 73 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.